To meet a critical need on the NDSU campus to support and retain an emerging population of biomedical scientists, the Center for Protease Research COBRE program created the Core Biology Facility in 2003. Since its inception, this core has served a wide variety of research projects in multiple disciplines on the campus and throughout the region. Its services provide equipment and expertise to conduct molecular biology, tissue culture, and bioassays in a state-of-the-art facility. Outreach programs to local and regional researchers have built a solid base of users. The core has received institutional support by way of salary and benefit contributions of 50% for the CBF manager and technical staff as well as the COBRE Administrative Assistant who coordinates activities across the cores. The core is expected to be an important part of the growth and development of NDSU as a recruiting tool to attract new biomedical scientists, as a cost-effective measure to stretch federal research dollars, and as a means of teaching and training investigators in contemporary techniques. Outreach to educational collectives has broadened the impact of the core on science in the region.